Category: personal finances

Whether you’re a newbie to the world of investing or have been dabbling in the stock market for some time, you likely find yourself checking your portfolio at least once a day; after all, you want to find out if your Starbucks or Target stock has risen in value or if it’s time to get out of that investment.

While investors have traditionally checked the stock section of a newspaper for this information, many now rely on their smartphones and computers to get updates in real time. Indeed, there are a number of must-have, handy electronic tools that make keeping tabs on your money and portfolio easier than ever. Here are a few prime examples.

An iPhone SE

While all smartphones allow you to make calls, send texts and take selfies, theiPhone SE goes beyond these functions with a user-friendly feature for investors. The smartphone, which comes equipped with the built-in Stocks app, allows you to easily keep track of everything in your portfolio from the palm of your hand.

In addition to keeping apprised on your various investments, the Stocks app also allows you to check the opening and closing numbers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500, as well as how well particular stocks have performed over the past two years.

Thanks to the iPhone SE, you don’t have to keep a folded-up newspaper in your purse or briefcase; instead, you can easily check your investments while standing in line for a latte. Now, how cool is that?

A Financial Calculator

When it comes to figuring out your finances, you can’t go wrong with a financial calculator. Sure, your smartphone’s built-in calculator or the one sitting on your desk can handle simple arithmetic, but a financial calculator is better for computing statistics and analyzing your cash flow.

A great and reasonably affordable option is the HP 12C Financial Calculator that’s sold on Amazon.com. At around $50, plus shipping costs, this slim and sturdy financial calculator will allow you to more easily calculate and track annual percentage rates, net present values and more.

A Fast and Reliable Laptop

In addition to owning a state-of-the-art smartphone, a laptop is also a great tool for investors. While smartphones offer more convenience, a laptop’s larger screen size will allow you to more easily read about your stocks, pull up your accounts, and check the markets. Technically, any laptop that connects to the internet will do, but to make your investing life easier and less stressful, you’ll want to find a laptop that’s lightning fast, reliable and that offers an amazing battery life.

After all, the last thing you want is to be in the middle of buying low, only to have your computer crash or the battery shut down. Additionally, because you might have multiple tabs open at once, you’ll need a laptop that can handle the activity, along with trading software apps.

As StockstoTrade.com notes in its reviews of thebest laptops for trading, the MacBook Pro is a fast laptop with a battery life that lasts nine hours. Spring for the model that offers more gigabytes. And, since it’s lightweight, you can take it with you on the road. The Dell XPS and Surface Pro are also ideal laptops for investors.

Good Luck, and May Your Portfolio Steadily Grow

To become a prolific investor, you’ll need a number of key tools in your arsenal. By using your smartphone to check your portfolio, buying a financial calculator to handle the often-tricky mathematics of investing, and buying a laptop that will allow you to buy and sell when the iron is hot, you will be well on your way to watching your investments grow into a nice nest egg.

As a working adult in today’s economy, you will realize that managing personal finances is essential for survival. The cost of living is at an all-time high, there is more to spend on and less ways to make it. If you are not careful, you may end up living from pay check to pay check or worse, in debt! Saving is an essential part of managing personal finances that most people often fail at leading to financial strain in case of emergencies. The following are some of the ways you can improve your personal finances and save more:

Where are you financially

You may need about a month to capture all the above information. Make sure you get all the credit card payments, bills, purchases and loans in order to determine where you are financially. Once you have a clear picture of your money, you can start making the decisions that will improve your financial status.

Determine your financial goals

It is quite difficult to have a plan if you do not have an end result in mind. You need to determine your monetary goals and develop a plan to meet these goals. Do you want to buy a new house? A new car? Start a business? You need to save up for short term or long term goals. Therefore, list down your needs in terms of urgency in order to avoid financially stressing yourself, buying expensive things that you do not presently need. Add up the costs of everything you need and this becomes your target savings for both long term and short-term needs. This is capital expenditures projection.

Cut back

Once you already know what you need, you should go back to your recorded spending and cut back on all unnecessary things. Unnecessary expenditures include things like magazine subscriptions that you never even read and cable TV that you never watch. Every dollar you cut back on is a dollar towards your goals. Websites like leasequit.com help you terminate your car lease early hence saving you money.

Once you are through cutting back, create a new monthly budget with only necessary expenditures and savings.

Jump start your savings

By now you are itching to start saving. Relax; you have already covered about 50% of the savings. Saving involves a lot of discipline and you might need to start avoiding hanging out with those friends that you often spend a lot of money with just to get your savings going. Here are some tips to jumpstart saving:

Open a saving account and set up an automatic savings transfer on a monthly basis.

You can also use direct deposit to move money from your salary straight to your savings.

Use your workplace’s 401(k) plan. 401(k) is a profit sharing plan offered by employers for employees.